Wellington

We had left our curtains open last night to hopefully watch the sun rise, as we would be travelling North and we were on the right of the ship. At 6.00 it was already bright and we were well in the bay. I got up and watched 2 tugs hold us against the dock while we were being moored on the other side. We could see planes take off and many other ships in the bay. Then it was back to bed.

We got up a bit later and went to breakfast. We got sun cream on and were ready to start the day. We met about 9.25 in the casino for our tour. We got on our bus and drove around the bay to the lighthouse. They supposedly call this “Windy Wellington”. It’s windy 160 days of the year, but it was a lovely day for us in the sun. Our bus driver was a Maori and very entertaining.

At the end we had a light snack and drink, and were treated to a working dog demonstration. We watched a couple of dogs round up half a dozen sheep. It was great watching the dogs respond to different sounds of a whistle.

The bus then took us in to town, providing us more knowledge on the way. Mum was feeling a bit unwell so went back to the ship, and Ethan was tired so went with her. The rest of us went to the museum and saw an amazing ANZAC display, which was quite moving. We then wandered around town looking for a pharmacy to get Mum and Kaoru some medication (Kaoru wasn’t 100% either), and then we went to a pub for a couple of beers. Dad bought some more wine to take on board. David and Izzy left us to go back to the ship – this surprised us as they had Internet here in town but not back on the ship! So they left us and made their way back to the shuttle stop. We decided to walk back, which was a K or 2. Didn’t worry me (other than needing the dunny the whoel way) but Dad was glad to be back.

We went to check on Mum. We had a drink (mum didn’t) and then Kaoru and I rushed off to a clue game. We didn’t do too well in it, but we arrived late so missed the first half of the questions.

We went to “the trough” for dinner and ate outside. The weather was nice and we had a great view of Wellington. Kaoru decided to go to bed and rest, and I met Mum, Dad and Julie for a “Sherlock Holmes” mystery, which was quite enjoyable. It was music trivia wrapped up in a story and we got 17 out of 20, but another team got 18.

I checked on Kaoru and then wanted to go and see 80’s music in the nightclub. So up I went by myself at 10.00 expecting to hear some great tunes. It didn’t happen though. The DJ was playing some semi-techno version of an 80’s song, and then it went to crap, so I left. I got a chamomile tea and sat on the balcony writing my diary. Julie and I met back in the lounge at 11 to listen to The Drop, and then we called it a night.